OF ARTS' AND SCIENCES : MAY 28, 1867. 317 



with a set of portable instruments, he kept up a series of raagnetical 

 observations at selected points, with the view of accurately ascjertaining 

 the relative strength of the magnetic force in Europe and America, by 

 comparison with parallel observations made in this country. He had 

 also engaged in the combined enterprise, pi'oposed and furthered by 

 the British Association, to determine the fluctuation of the magnetical 

 and meteorological elements of the globe by contemporaneous obser- 

 vations at many widely separated stations. For this he established an 

 Observatory at Girard College, which was equipped with instruments 

 by the Trustees, and supported by the American Philosophical Society 

 and several liberal citizens. The observations here made, which were 

 kept up, at intervals of one and two hours, night and day for five years, 

 form a rich mine of statistics from which, down to the last two years 

 of his life, he continued to draw interesting series of results without 

 exhausting the material. 



A new epoch in Professor Bache's life now approached. Before he 

 was well settled in his old position at the University, in November, 

 1843, upon the death of Mr. Hassler, he was called to the charge of 

 the United States Coast Survey, of which for about twenty years he 

 was the efficient and distinguished head. His education at West 

 Point, his well-proved skill in investigation, his thorough familiarity 

 with the principles and details of applied science, all the acquisitions 

 and experience of his previous life, and, not least, his placid and 

 even temper, urbane deportment, exquisite tact, and executive ability, 

 all conspired to his eminent fitness for the place, and to the achieve- 

 ment of the immense development and complete success of this great 

 national undertaking in his hands. We cannot enter here into the 

 history of the United States Coast Survey, intimately connected 

 as it is with that of its late superintendent. It must suffice to say, 

 that when Professor Bache took charge of it, the survey was in its 

 infancy, had touched upon only four or five hundred miles of the 

 Atlantic coast, was subject to misapprehension, annually assailed by 

 ignorant prejudice, and in danger of being suspended or abolished. 

 Before he died, it had extended its lines over the whole coast of the 

 national domain, upon both oceans, from the Bay of Fundy to the Rio 

 Grande, and from San Diego to Puget Sound; had conquered unjust 

 prejudice, silenced opposition, and now passes into the charge of our 

 associate the present incumbent, firmly established as one of the 

 bureaus of the Executive Government. 



